Phightins

I am seriously about to throw up. Inexcusable for a playoff game.

This is on Charlie Manuel. This is on Wally Bell. Can't put it into words.

So does Wally Bell just pick and choose when the inside corner is a strike? Horrible.

Props to Mad Dog. Hopefully some of that rubs off on his teammates.

Charlie Manuel and Rich Dubee have made some horrendous decisions tonight. If you are using Madson this inning, why the hell do you wait until after Posey doubles off Bastardo to make the change? Also, Jimmy absolutely has to make that play on the ball Ross hit. Just isn't meant to be I guess.

Says the guy who stopped watching his team in September. Glad the Phillies are able to provide your only baseball entertainment of the year.

Absolutely awful.

And we can now add "Charlie Manuel bullpen mismanagement" to the list of problems tonight. Hopefully this doesn't cost them more than just that one run.

And Mike Green is really sexy in the regular season, but going into the postseason with him as your "number 1 defenseman" is kind of a recipe for disaster.

Two blatant ball 4's called strike 3 and 3 brutal calls on the bases. And we are only in the third inning. What do they have in store for us next?

Hamstring tightness for Nelson Cruz. Ouch.

Francisco starting in LF for Ibanez, as expected.

Vic Utley Polly Howard Werth Rollins Francisco Ruiz Blanton Renteria Sanchez Huff Posey Burrell Ross Sandoval Rowand Bumgarner

And just to make it official, Mark Teixeira is done.

Playoff crowds suck everywhere, not just NY. I think you saw the "real fans" sticking around there at the end. Most "real fans" are priced out by playoff tickets. They are just too damn expensive.

Haha just trust me. I have seen basically every inning since Spring Training started. They are a very frustrating group. Strikeouts from top to bottom, so they are prone to these massive group slumps. Carlos Ruiz and Placido Polanco are basically the only two who don't fall into that mold, and neither of them are really capable of carrying a lineup through a slump. But really, they are so hit or miss. Also, they are obviously very left handed, which makes them very easy to pitch to in the later innings. And as I was mentioning earlier, they are all having down years to boot (except Ruiz). Howard's and Utley's OPS's are way down, Jimmy Rollins' everything is down, Raul Ibanez is a career in decline, etc. Talented group for sure, as you said, but very overrated. Not to mention Jayson Werth's inability to hit with RISP (which he was needs to do a lot). Good numbers for most of these guys, but as with most situations in baseball, numbers don't exactly tell the entire story. They are quite hit or miss, and when they miss they miss horribly, as evidenced by them being shut out 11 times this season (and what you are seeing here in the playoffs). One change for tomorrow though...I would expect to see Ben Francisco in LF.

http://www.the700level.com/2010/10/photo-san-francisco-panda-kids-today-and-their-decorum.html This made me laugh a lot. But could you imagine if these were Philly kids saying something like that to the Giants? We'd never hear the end of it.

Anyway, definitely the right decision to go with Blanton tomorrow (feel free to bump this all you want if he sucks). Halladay has thrown a ton of innings this year, so asking him to go on short rest twice in one series might be a bit much. Also, nobody knows how Hamels would handle short rest.

Again, the Phillies lineup really is not that great.

Haha, he'd be the 2nd starter on the Mets. For real, he'd put up very solid numbers in Citi Field.

The shame is that the replay policy they have in place now is EXACTLY for situations like that. Why even have the rule if you aren't going to use it there.

Blanton has not pitched in 3 weeks, correct. He has at least one thing in common with the Mets pitchers.

Still Blanton tomorrow, BTW.

Ibanez has not been particularly good since May of last season, although he was great this past September. Rollins is Rollins. Every time it seems like he is hitting, he blows out his quad or his hammy. The main problems are that Ryan Howard OPS'd 85 points below his career number, Chase Utley OPSd 60 points below his, and Jayson Werth, despite having sexy numbers on the surface, hit .186 in 140 ABs with RISP. The Phillies have not been hitting this season, and they never hit at AT&T Park. So today should not be much of a surprise.

The Phillies do not have a great offense, nor have they at any point this season.